Tom Royce 
Mornings Among the Producers at Chambéry’s Halles The covered market in Chambéry opens early, and the first time I slipped inside just after eight on a weekday, the air was already thick with the smell of fresh bread and aged cheese. Producers from the surrounding Savoie hills had set up their stalls, calling out to … Read more
Assisi rises pink from the flank of Monte Subasio, and most people meet it the same way: bus bay, basilica façade, headphones and pilgrimage sticks. Fair enough. The Basilica of San Francesco is not optional if you came for Francis. But the town I keep is smaller and higher — laundry lines, side doors, and … Read more
Most visitors pin Dresden to the rebuilt Baroque skyline south of the Elbe: Frauenkirche dome, Zwinger courts, Semperoper steps, Canaletto frame on the riverbank. Fair enough if the day only holds a palace queue and a cake stop. I come for rain on a blue courtyard façade, when metal gutters start to plink and gurgle … Read more
Roses and Ramparts: Local Paths in Provins The train from Paris empties out at Provins station, and most passengers head straight for the shuttle or the short walk uphill to the medieval upper town. I lingered a bit longer at the bottom, watching the ordinary comings and goings of a Saturday market day before following … Read more
Rhododendron forest off Marcusallee in Horn-Lehe Bremen’s tourist map stops hard at the Marktplatz, then maybe the Schnoor if someone has an extra hour. Horn-Lehe sits about twenty minutes out by tram, past Schwachhausen, in a stretch of the city that is still mostly gardens and quiet streets. I come for the rhododendron forest off … Read more
Monterosso al Mare is the Cinque Terre stop people remember for sand. Fair enough. It has the longest beach of the five, a station that dumps day-trippers onto Via Fegina, and more gelato than anyone needs. What I keep coming back for sits higher and smells sharper: lemon trees on stone terraces, the Capuchin hill … Read more